Respect

More coverage of Blair's doomed initiative -

at Albion Blogger's :

"It’s interesting that, unwittingly, Blair is admitting that the old deferences and prejudices were part and parcel of the old system of law, order, respect and decency. It’s exactly those deferences and prejudices that created the sense of community and relatively low crime society that Blair now complains we’ve lost."

at Civitas :

"Having so identified what he considered the principal cause of their unruly behaviour, Blair was quick to disclaim any power to improve it. ‘I cannot solve all these problems… I cannot … raise someone children’s for them.’

Well said, Mr Blair: you certainly can’t. Indeed, as I recall, you too seem to have experienced the same difficulty many parents have in raising their children to behave with proper decorum in the case of some of your own off-spring.

But, frankly, if the Prime Minister cannot be expected to raise successfully other people’s children, then neither can the army of public-sector workers whom his Government has so busily recruited these last eight years for the purpose: teachers, social workers, race advisors, mentors, drug counsellors etc, etc.

Neither alone nor together can they make up for one vital ingredient needed to ensure children grow up well-adjusted that is all too-often missing today: the chance to grow up alongside and under the loving care of a father as well as of a mother."